Gideon Coe

At the end of Saturday's Fighting Talk on Radio 5 Live, a wonderfully quizzical sports knowledge contest (back on my listening menu as long as Adam and Joe are away from 6 Music), there was a challenge to contestants to name great Finns. Martin Bayfield picked a Finnish strong man, Gideon Coe ingeniously chose Finn McCool, the legendary Irish hero who built the Giant's Causeway. He also, said Coe, acquired the wisdom of the salmon by sucking a bit of salmon skin from his burnt thumb. At this point they fell to discussing what the wisdom of the salmon might be, exactly the kind of thing that keeps me listening.